A changing space at the heart of international migration
p. 30-31
Texte intégral
9,470,000 | 1971 | 2004 | 2016 |
Egyptians abroad in 2017 | Right to emigrate written into the constitution | Four Freedoms Agreement* between Egypt and Sudan | Law no. 82 against illegal migration and immigrant trafficking |
1Given its large population, Egypt is a country of considerable emigration, with a sizable diaspora. It is also, like its North African neighbours, a temporary and permanent destination State, far from the simplistic image of a “transit zone” that the public authorities insist on maintaining. This double role as a country of emigration and immigration has made Egypt a special partner of the European Union since the 2010s.
A land of emigration: an old story
2While Egypt was, duringthe 18th and 19th centuries,a land of immigration, the country became one of emigration during the 20th centuryx², exploiting its reservoir of labour and the politics of Arabisation in newly independent states. After the 1952 revolution Nasser encouraged outward migration to other countries of the Eastern Block, exploiting the emergence of mobility as a political tool.
3From the 1970s a phase of increased migration began with the arrival of Sadat to power and the saturation of public employment. Governmental measures encouraged emigration at a time when the region was experiencing an oil boom and a demand for labour: obtaining a passport was made easier as from 1974. The State approached migration as a strategic political, social and economic tool. The transfer of savings by emigrants increased on average by $3.229 billion per annum between 1979 and 1989, making Egypt the first among Arab countries in terms of remittance payments.
4Since 2011, emigration issues were recomposed by two questions: first, the one of the overseas Egyptian vote, which was crucial during the elections of 2011 and 2012 and has underlined the political role of expatriates. Second, illegal migration from Egypt and by Egyptian youth reached an unprecedented level following disillusionment that rose after the revolutionary events, as well as from the deteriorating social, political and economic situation in Egypt. Roughly 4,000 people arrived on the Italian coasts in 2014, of whom half were unaccompanied minors, making Egypt the tenth largest source of undocumented migrants in Italy. The rise in so-called illegal departures is connected to the increasing difficulty for many Egyptians to acquire a legal means to travel within an international context of the fight against terrorism and the restrictions on movement from the South. Hence the rise in expulsions from Europe: 2,515 in 2015.
A refuge once again
5Egypt of the 19th century is often termed as “cosmopolitan”, when movement was facilitated by the legal system of Capitulations* that prevailed in the Ottoman Empire. The country was a land of investment and a place of refuge forEuropean communities, especially Italian and Greek Orthodox, fr Ottoman and Sudanese dissidents, Jewish communities, Slavic refugees during the Second World War, or Palestinians after the Nakba* of 1948.
6The 1990s witnessed a renewal of immigration to Egypt especially from refugees fleeing Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and more recently Iraq and Syria. The administration of these refugees has involved both the State and various external agents, and especially the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Responsible for asylum seekers and statutory refugees since the signing of an agreement with the State in 1956, the UNHCR has handled hundreds of European refugees (especially Yugoslav) after the Second World War andSub-Saharan refugees since the 1980s. The civil wars in Ethiopia (1961-1991), Somalia (from 1991) and Sudan (1983-2005), political repression and repeated droughts in the Sahel have led to large-scale arrivals from the southern border of Egypt. Until 2013, Sudanese accounted for the largest number of asylum seekers until the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Syrians drastically changed the humanitarian landscape for the UNHCR. Indeed;while in 2008 the UNHCR was responsible for some 40,000 refugees and asylum seekers (above all Sudanese)the number reached 250,000 in 2013 - and this figure most probably falls far short of reality given that not all wish to be registered with the UNHCR.
7Post-revolutionary repression and the increased burden upon a relatively precarious asylum system have exacerbated the difficulties experienced by migrants stuck in Egypt. While the possibilities of relocation exist (in 2017 1,932 refugees left for the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany), they are not easily accessed. This situation has pushed a growing number of people, Egyptians and others, into makeshift boats heading for Europe. Sinkings are common, such as the tragedy off Rosetta in September 2016 that left 200 dead.
Securing and externalising European border control
8The increasing number of departures from Egypt, and the country’s position as an ever more popular migrant hub have led Europe to forge a new partnership with the authorities in order to expand the externalization of their border in the region. The political collapse of former partners in migration control strategies, such as Libya, led Egypt to acquire a new role of substitute for the European authorities along with a renewed an understanding of the financial and diplomatic interest in fulfilling this role. The Khartoum Process, younger brother of the Rabat Process, ratified at the Valletta Summit of 2015, has placed Egypt and some African neighbours in partnership with Europe in the suppression of illegal migration. Egypt has adopted various institutional and legal instruments that bear witness to the increased security aspect of administering migration. Measures have been taken to restrict mobility across Egypt, whether that of resident citizens or foreigners.
Auteur
Pauline Brücker, post doctoral researcher, CRESPPA-GTM, Université Paris 8, associated with the CEDEJ
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